Writing (mostly) about disruptive trends and technologies in the 21st century

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Web Secret #248: Deleting Old Accounts

I just came across a great website, EncryptEverything.ca. The purpose of Encrypt is to "use mass education and promotion of encryption, privacy tools, and copyleft licensing as a means of promoting digital sovereignty."

Encrypt wisely points out that:

"one of the most easily overlooked steps towards defending your digital privacy is preventing old skeletons from your past being unearthed. Most internet users have had many different eMail addresses over the years, and have abandoned accounts on facebook, livejournal, help forums or other communities.
These represent a threat to you if you don't log back in to delete the account; somebody intent on stealing your identity could easily get into an old account and find information that'd you'd forgotten it contained..."

What follows is my edited version of their list of sites where people most commonly have dormant accounts, and where possible, a link to where you can delete that account: (Encrypt encourages the sharing of their tips.)

AIM/AOL: Notoriously difficult, best bet is to phone 888-265-8008 - they will ask your security question